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Awaiting
for God
In
a letter to his friends
hymn writer Wendell P. Loveless related this story:
One evening a speaker who was visiting the United States wanted to make a
telephone call. He entered a phone booth
but found it to be different from
those in his own country. It was beginning to get dark
so he had difficulty
finding the number in the directory. He noticed that there was a light in the
ceiling
but he didn't know how to turn it on. As he tried again to find the
number in the fading twilight
a passerby noted his plight and said
"Sir
if you want to turn the light on
you have to shut the door." To the
visitor's amazement and satisfaction
when he closed the door
the booth was
filled with light. He soon located the number and completed the call.
In
a similar way
when we draw aside in a quiet place to pray
we must block out
our busy world and open our hearts to the Father. Our darkened world of
disappointments and trials will then be illuminated. We will enter into
communion with God
we will sense His presence
and we will be assured of His
provision for us. Our Lord often went to be alone with the Heavenly Father.
Sometimes it was after a busy day of preaching and healing
as in today's
Scripture reading. At other times
it was before making a major decision (Luke
6:12).── Our Daily Bread.
William
Wilberforce
Christian statesman of Great Britain in the late 18th and early
19th centuries
once said
"I must secure more time for private devotions.
I have been living far too public for me. The shortening of private devotions
starves the soul. It grows lean and faint."
Following
a failure in Parliament
he remarked that his problems may have been due to the
fact that he spent less and less time in his private devotions in which he
could earnestly seek the will of God. He concluded
"God allowed me to
stumble."── Source Unknown.
Early
African converts to Christianity were earnest and regular in private devotions.
Each one reportedly had a separate spot in the thicket where he would pour out
his heart to God. Over time the paths to these places became well worn. As a
result
if one of these believers began to neglect prayer
it was soon apparent
to the others. They would kindly remind the negligent one
"Brother
the
grass grows on your path."── Today in the Word
June 29
1992.
One
hour of quiet concentration in any business can be worth two hours of normal
working time
according to the management of a Denver business
quoted in a
Success magazine item.
"Interruptions
are the biggest enemy of creativity
" says Gary Desmond
a principal of
Hoover Berg Desmond (HBD) a $30 million a year architectural firm. To minimize
the inevitable interruptions in the firm's large
open offices
Desmond came up
with the idea which is more familiar with kids than corporations--the quiet
hour. Every morning from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
no one at HBD including the
principals
may communicate with anyone else inside or outside the office.
"Basically
we're sitting at our desks for that hour
" says Desmond
who makes allowances for emergency phone calls. "We try to focus totally
on our clients' designs." Initially
HBD's 25 employees balked at the
concept.
"Management
had to explain that this was not a response to bad work habits. It was a
vehicle to make us concentrate even more rigorously
" says Desmond
although he now concedes that quiet hour is an excellent crack-the-whip
technique too. But what do the clients think of it? At first
the firm chose to
hide the policy from the outside world. "Businesses that found out used to
ask if we served milk and cookies at quiet hour
" says Desmond. "But
we stuck to it and now those same firms respect how much we're trying to
accomplish every morning." Quiet hour has worked out so well
in fact
that HBD wants to start a second one
perhaps in midafternoon. "Our
employees all wish they had more quiet hours
" says Desmond. "It
gives us what most businesses need so badly
a little time to think."── Management
Digest
Vol. 1
No. 4
July
1989.
A
research psychologist at the National Institute of Mental Health was convinced
he could prove his theory from a cage full of mice. His name? Dr. John Calhoun.
His theory? Overcrowded conditions take a terrible toll on humanity. Dr.
Calhoun built a nine-foot square cage for selected mice. He observed them
closely as their population grew. He started with eight mice.
The
cage was designed to contain comfortably a population of 160. He allowed the
mice to grow
however
to a population of 2200. They were not deprived of any
of life's necessities except privacy--no time or space to be all alone. Food
water
and other resources were always clean and in abundance. A pleasant
temperature was maintained. No disease was present. All mortality factors
(except aging) were eliminated. The cage
except for its overcrowded condition
was ideal for the mice. The population reached its peak at 2200 after about
two-and-a-half years. Since there was no way for the mice to physically escape
from their closed environment
Dr. Calhoun was especially interested in how
they would handle themselves in that overcrowded cage.
Interestingly
as the population reached its peak
the colony of mice began to disintegrate.
Strange stuff started happening. Dr. Calhoun made these observations: 1)Adults
formed natural groups of about a dozen individual mice. 2) In each group each
adult mouse performed a particular social role...but there were no roles in
which to place the healthy young mice
which totally disrupted the whole
society. 3) The males who had protected their territory withdrew from
leadership. 4) The females became aggressive and forced out the young...even
their own offspring. 5) The young grew to be only self-indulgent. They ate
drank
slept
groomed themselves
but showed no normal aggression and
most
noteworthy
failed to reproduce. After five years
every mouse had died. This
occurred despite the fact that right up to the end there was plenty of food
water
and an absence of disease. After the research psychologist reported on
his experiment
a couple of significant questions arose.
Q:
"What were the first activities to cease?"
A: "The most complex activities for mice: courtship and mating."
Q:
What results would such overcrowding have on humanity?"
A: We would first of all cease to reproduce our ideas
and along with ideas
our goals and ideals. In other words
our values would be lost."── Charles
Swindoll
Quest For Character
p. 35-36.
Noise
affects human behavior. In one experiment carried out by psychologists
a
student leaving a library intentionally dropped an armload of books. In 50% of
the cases
a passerby stopped to help the student pick up the books. Then the
experimenters brought out a lawn mower without a muffler and started it near
where a student would again intentionally drop the books. This time
only about
10% of the people who passed stopped to help. It was clear that behavior
changed because of the earsplitting sound of the nearby lawn mower.
In
experiments in Los Angeles
researchers found that children who lived in
neighborhoods near the airport could not complete certain tasks undertaken when
jets were landing and taking off as easily as children who lived in quiet
neighborhoods. Some studies of prison conditions have shown that the high level
of noise causes more complaints by prisoners than the food or other prison
conditions do.
"Carry
some quiet around inside thee
" the well-known Quaker
George Fox
used to
say. "Be still and cool in thy own mind and spirit
from thy own thoughts
and then thou wilt feel the principle of God to turn thy mind to the Lord from
whence cometh life; whereby thou mayest receive the strength and power to allay
all storms and tempests."── Unknown
Out
in front of us is the drama of men and of nations
seething
struggling
laboring
dying...but within the silences of the souls of men an eternal drama
is ever being enacted. On the outcome of this inner drama rests ultimately
the
outer pageant of history.── Thomas Kelly.
The
first hour of the morning is the rudder of the day.── Henry Ward Beecher
Every
now and then go away
have a little relaxation
for when you come back to your
work your judgment will be surer
since to remain constantly at work will cause
you to lose power of judgment...Go some distance away because then the work
appears smaller
and more of it can be taken in at a glance
and lack of
harmony or proportion is more readily seen." ── Leonardo da Vinci. Who
excelled as a painter
sculptor
poet
architect
engineer
city planner
scientist
inventor
anatomist
military genius
and philosopher.
A
recent survey of Discipleship Journal readers ranked areas of greatest
spiritual challenge to them:
1.
Materialism.
2. Pride.
3. Self-centeredness.
4. Laziness.
5. (Tie) Anger/Bitterness.
5. (Tie) Sexual lust.
7. Envy.
8. Gluttony.
9. Lying.
Survey
respondents noted temptations were more potent when they had neglected their
time with God (81 percent) and when they were physically tired (57 percent).
Resisting temptation was accomplished by prayer (84 percent)
avoiding
compromising situations (76 percent)
Bible study (66 percent)
and being
accountable to someone (52 percent).── Discipleship Journal
November /
December 1992.
Let
me meet you on the mountain
Lord
Just once.
You wouldn't have to burn a whole bush.
Just a few smoking branches
And I would surely be ...your Moses.
Let
me meet you on the water
Lord
Just once.
It wouldn't have to be on White Rock Lake.
Just on a puddle after the annual Dallas rain
And I would surely be...your Peter.
Let
me meet you on the road
Lord
Just once.
You wouldn't have to blind me on North Central Expressway.
Just a few bright lights on the way to chapel
And I would surely be...your Paul.
Let
me meet you
Lord
Just once.
Anywhere. Anytime.
Just meeting you in the Word is so hard sometimes
Must I always be...your Thomas?
──
Norman Shirk
April 10
1981
KQ (Dallas Seminary)
Waiting for God is not
laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the
abandonment of effort. Waiting for God means
first
activity under
command; second
readiness for any new command that may come; third
the
ability to do nothing until the command is given.── G. Campbell Morgan